Pastors Must Possess Both Maternal and Paternal Qualities

From John MacArthur's chapter, "The Pastor as Leader," in For the Fame of God's Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper:

Every true leader and shepherd of God's flock must possess both maternal and paternal qualities....He is at once tender and loving like a nursing mother, as well as firm and courageous like a confident father.

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children (1 Thessalonians 2:7).

For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

Insipid, Innocuous Pablum

"How wearisome it must be to God to hear His inspired Word replaced by insipid, innocuous pablum dribbled out of pulpits!"

--John MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel

An Inside Job

"[M]any Christians seem completely unaware - if not unwilling to see - that serious dangers threaten the church from within. Yet if church history teaches us anything, it teaches us that the most devastating assaults on the faith have always begun as subtle errors arising from inside the body itself."

--John MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel

MacArthur on the Necessity of the Local Church

Here is a brief but poignant article by John MacArthur on the need for the local church, published in Pulpit Magazine.